Wednesday, June 30, 2010

It's a girl!

The duckling we thought was a boy at hatching is actually a girl. Initially named Oscar because mom decided to brood inside of a garbage can on its side, the duckling will now be called Abby Cadabby. (Abby is another Sesame Street character.)

Abby is in the middle of a voice change and sounds totally ridiculous. Instead of "peep peep peep" she now says "peep peep grunt squeak QUACK peep". She sounds like a dog toy with a broken squeaker. Since she is in her teenager phase, we try not to laugh too much about her voice in front of her.

3 comments:

Hi! I am reading thru your blog today. Appreciate all the info on ducks. I have been thinking about getting a couple of ducklings. But, I have a question. My neighbor has a 'bird sanctuary' (I say that loosely) - no kill - bird yard. About an acre of birds (chickens, roosters, ducks, geese, etc.) roaming and fending for themselves. I already have problems with chickens coming over the fence line. Do you think these chickens would be any trouble for ducks?

Hello! I came across your blog by doing endless searching to get info for building a duck house & saw you live in CO too! We are in Steamboat Springs where we get annually 343" of snow on average! We are going to build our duck house & it can be up to 12' long if necessary (we will have 5 Welch Harlequins)& are hoping to have a vent from a greenhouse vent into it to provide heat. We are also thinking we'd build it off the ground so that the door is easier to access with the deep snow. My questions are:Are my thoughts on a house good ones or do they need 'tweeking'? How much room do these 5 ducks need over winter? Will they go out in the snow & therefore not need so much indoor space??Do we need to provide heat?Any other suggestions you could provide would be fantastic! A more direct email address for me is lisasadlersemail@gmail.com if you felt so inclined to offer advice. Thank you! - Lisa

Sorry it took me so long to reply. RoseHill, those chickens shouldn't be a problem unless they are diseased. Even then, ducks are naturally more resistant to "cooties" in general.

Lisa, ducks will actually play in the snow and usually do not need heat. Make sure they can get in to some sort of shelter with a thick layer of dry straw and they will be fine. As for space, the bigger the better. Ducks poop a lot and the biggest area you can give them will make life easier on you :D

About Me

Blue Feather Micro-Farm is a little place where ducks and quail are raised and herbs and produce are grown.
Our challenge is to see how much we can produce on a small suburban lot in the Security area of Fountain Valley Colorado.